Today we light a single candle to mark one year since we introduced Google Apps for Government. And appropriately enough for a first birthday, it’s been a year full of firsts.

Last year, Google Apps became the first cloud-based email and collaboration platform to receive Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) authorization from the U.S. government.

Last month, Wyoming became the first entire state in the country to go Google. They’ve been joined by state agencies in South Carolina, Virginia, and Kansas; cities such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Des Moines, Iowa to Mesquite, Nevada; and counties like Multnomah County in Oregon, Rockingham County in North Carolina, and Washington County in New York. At last count, state and local governments in 42 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia are using Google Apps.

Earlier today, we announced that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) became the first federal agency to complete migration to a cloud-based email service. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) became the largest federal agency to date to select Google Apps as its email and collaboration platform for 25,000 employees.

GSA and NOAA are demonstrating the benefits of the federal government’s “cloud first” policy, which challenges agencies to move three services to the cloud by mid-2012, in recognition that cloud computing can provide agencies with agile, secure, reliable and cost-effective options.

We couldn’t be more pleased about all that’s happened in our first year and look forward to what year two brings.